A run-down open-air stage in the middle of Crystal Palace is seeking to be restored once more.
The Crystal Palace Bowl is an open-air stage that was hugely popular in the 1960s and 1970s, and then the temporary stage made permanent in 1997 with a striking corten steel structure – one of the first such designs in the UK.
Candidly, not knowing its history, your correspondent thought it a sculpture when he wandered around the area a few years back, not realizing that a performance stage could face a lake.
As of February 2020, Bromley council have been actively seeking “creative and community-minded business proposals to reactivate the cherished concert platform”.
In part to raise awareness, and in part to raise money, a crowdfunding campaign has been set up to mark one of the venues more famous music concerts, the 40th anniversary of the Bob Marley & the Wailers concert.
A plaque will adopt the traditional heritage blue design but be ringed with the iconic Ethiopian / pan-African / Reggae colours of red, yellow and green.
The organisers also want to hear from anyone who was in the crowd at the concert and are putting out a call for any photos, film or audio footage of the show for a forthcoming documentary on Bob Marley’s legacy and the concert at Crystal Palace Bowl.
The last time I heard of someone trying to use this for a performance was the “Crystal Palace Garden Party” that was planned for June 2012. It was cancelled because surveyors found that the structure was in a far worse state than people thought.
See https://www.nme.com/news/music/various-artists-3429-1282539
It would be great to see it back in action.
It’s time to admit defeat on “Ritchie’s laptop”.
Scrap the cover, repair the floor and have temporary structures whenever you want a concert.
We used to go to Sunday classical concerts in the 1980s which were more like family picnics with pleasant music in the background. The stage at that time was a large white quarter sphere shape